Friday, July 16, 2010

Facebook Account Closed, New Projects

This blog has linked for a long time to my account on Facebook.

Given that, I found myself having to delete my account. A rising scent of racial hostility has led me to cut off ties with conservatism and the resulting war spilled over onto my blog as ideologues tried to stuff their lack of nuance down my throat. As personal friends ended up getting involved, I felt really uncomfortable with the whole situation.

For those who accuse me of "being lost" or "being obsessed with race," I will simply say that race was farthest from my mind until it was put there by others. I will admit freely that I have made generalizations and silly jokes (When I worked at a summer camp, I accidentally burned cookies that I was making for the campers and complained that we couldn't give them out because they were "all black." A black co-worker said to me jokingly, "Michael, what do you mean they're all black? Why you gotta bring race into this?" I often remember the trading of generalizations that I made with a friend from the Asian American Journalists Association while I attended a dinner of theirs in 2005. When I told a friend there that my other friends hadn't shown up, he said, "I know what you're thinking. I'm stuck here in Asian Town by myself!" I laughed during both instances.). I have often criticized in conversation and in publication the intolerant, monocultural aspects of Arab, Chinese and Japanese society, and received racist accusations aimed at myself from those who did not understand I was making a much needed sociological critique. I never, ever and never will engage in the sort of nonsense that is propelling the likes of Haley Barbour,Sarah Palin or Rand Paul to power and the sort of demonization of groups that is occurring by people who know nothing about those groups or the people in them.

I would also like to bring up the examples of Christopher Hitchens and Charles Johnson. Despite building up ties with the Right during the Bush years, when the administration, despite very serious failures, faults and mistakes, was taking on Islamic fascism and trying to reach an agreeable consensus on illegal immigration against a left-wing opposition just as fierce as the right-wing one that faces serious men today, Hitchens has spent considerable time demolishing Sarah Palin and ethno-nationalism while Charles Johnson has dedicatedLittle Green Footballs to exposing the rising tide of hate on the American Right. I'm more than happy to join them and the likes of others who have found moral justice more important than career advancement. If you look on history, these sort of contrarians - Rosa Parks, George Orwell, Leon Trotsky, Oskar Schindler, Malcolm X, the 442nd Infantry Regiment which fought against fascism while the American government held their family in internment camps - who stand up and against former friends for the sake of moral principle are the ones that history remembers. Organization hacks who stick along to get along are the ones who history forgets.

I suggest those with similar doubts look in the mirror and decide what they find more important. India, China, Brazil and many other developing countries are rising up and becoming more and more competitive with the once dominant United States. The Creationist, reactionary tendencies and anti-intellectualism of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement will bring us to an America more closely resembling the feudalistic Middle East that we are in conflict with than a modern, prosperous economy in which success will be possible.

I may or may not start up a page on Facebook in the future. If I do, it will be open only to close personal friends and will not be open to anyone else.

I have new projects slated, including Voice of the Migrant- an online journal co-run by a Rothbardian anarchist friend about those coming to America in pursuit of greater opportunity and working hard as hell to do it. This blog, as always, will remain updated and remain a dutiful proponent of civil liberties, moral justice and sanity against an increasing illiberal, injust and insane world.